Description
Book Synopsis Calculating the diversity of biological or cultural classes is a fundamental way of describing, analyzing, and understanding the world around us. Understanding archaeological diversity is key to understanding human culture in the past. Archaeologists have long experienced a tenuous relationship with statistics; however, the regular integration of diversity measures and concepts into archaeological practice is becoming increasingly important. This volume includes chapters that cover a wide range of archaeological applications of diversity measures. Featuring studies of archaeological diversity ranging from the data-driven to the theoretical, from the Paleolithic to the Historic periods, authors illustrate the range of data sets to which diversity measures can be applied, as well as offer new methods to examine archaeological diversity.
Trade Review “I think it is an important volume for archaeologists to mine the work of all of these incredible researchers for a greater understanding of what diversity can tell us about within our assemblages and regions, and the chapters provide approaches for a diversity of archaeological materials that has something for almost any archaeologist no matter what their specialty or focus.” • Christopher Wolff, University at Albany
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Foreword
Michael J. O’Brien and David Hurst Thomas
Introduction: On the Challenges of Measuring Diversity in Archaeology
Briggs Buchanan and Metin I. Eren
Chapter 1. Dispersion and Diversity: Parfleche Variation on the Great Plains vs. the Columbia Plateau
Stephen J. Lycett
Chapter 2. The Diversity of North America’s “Old Copper” Projectile Points
Michelle R. Bebber and Anne Chao
Chapter 3. Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Architecture
Brian Andrews, Danielle Macdonald, and Brooke Morgan
Chapter 4. The Potential of Coverage-Based Rarefaction in Zooarchaeology
J. Tyler Faith and Andrew Du
Chapter 5. Diversity and Lithic Microwear: Quantification, Classification, and Standardization
W. James Stemp and Danielle A. Macdonald
Chapter 6. Intensification Mechanisms Driving Dietary Change among the Great Plains Big Game Hunters of North America
Erik Otárola-Castillo, Melissa G. Torquato, and Matthew E. Hill
Appendix 6.1: Summary Information for Archaeological Sites Used in This Study
Chapter 7. Challenges and Prospects of Richness and Diversity Measures in Paleoethnobotany
Alan Farahani and R. J. Sinensky
Appendix 7.1: Abundance of Reproductive Plant Parts Recovered from the Las Capas Site, Southeastern Arizona, 1220–730 BCE 205
Chapter 8. Quantifying Evenness of Paleoindian Projectile Point Forms within Geographic Regions of Eastern North America
Matthew T. Boulanger, Ryan P. Breslawski, and Ian A. Jorgeson
Chapter 9. Thinking about Diversity in Material Culture at Multiple Scales
Steven L. Kuhn
Chapter 10. Measuring and Comparing Class Diversity in Archaeological Assemblages: A Brief Guide to the History and State-of-the-Art in Diversity Statistics
Robert K. Colwell and Anne Chao
Epilogue: Diversity Metrics are Convenient, but Their Archaeological Meanings Are Still Obscure
R. Lee Lyman
Index
